


Mash Up

by d0g-bless (d0gbless)



Series: Black/Bird: Shidge Week 2016 [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Game Night Gone Wrong, SHIDGE, Shidge Week 2016, Shidge Week 2016: Future
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-19
Updated: 2016-09-19
Packaged: 2018-08-15 23:34:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8077702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/d0gbless/pseuds/d0g-bless
Summary: In which a new Paladin Bonding Night activity backfires. (Shidge Week 2016, Day 1: Future.)





	

**Author's Note:**

> So instead of working on PT last week (and this week), I've decided to focus on Shidge Week prompts.
> 
> Prompt for Day 1: Future.

Pidge’s lips curved into a wicked grin. She pushed her chair back and stretched, popping a few joints in the process. She wrung her wrists—as the team’s tech expert, she couldn’t risk carpal tunnel syndrome. “It’s done.”

She practically skipped out of the lab, earning her concerned stares from the crew.

“Pidge, are you feeling alright?” Hunk held a hand to her forehead (and unintentionally over her glasses.) “No fever.”

Pidge pushed his hand away. Her glasses—Matt’s glasses—were all smudged now thanks to Hunk. “I’ve never been better.” She removed the glasses and tried to clean the lenses with her sweater. It didn’t improve them much. Her eyes flickered left and right. Her voice dropped off, making it hard for Hunk to understand her, but he got the gist of it.

“That’s diabolical, Pidge.”

“I think you mean ‘brilliant.’”

He ruffled her unkempt hair. “That, too.”

“So, are you in?”

Hunk hesitated. “I don’t know if this is a good idea, Pidge. It seems kinda… mean.”

“But it’s Lance. It’d be payback for all of the pranks he pulled on you at the Garrison.”

He closed his eyes and recalled the all the times Lance had set a bucket of freezing cold water atop of their door. And then the fake rattlesnake he’d hid in Hunk’s bedsheets—and of course Lance had just purchased a maraca for more realistic sound effects.

Hunk’s eyes steeled with determination. “I’m in.”

* * *

Coran paced along the training deck. “Alright, you lot. It’s Paladin Bonding Night starting now. Should we start with meditation? Or sparring?”

Pidge’s hand shot up. Just like at the Garrison, she was usually the first one with an answer. “Actually, could we try something new? I created the game MASH on our systems. No paper and pencils needed or anything.”

“MASH? Is this like the mashed po-tah-toe dish Hunk talks about?” Coran asked.

“Nope. It’s a game used to tell fortunes.” Pidge grinned evilly. “And it’s very accurate. About 97 percent of the time, in fact.” She looked to Hunk who nodded vigorously. Keith and Lance looked a little lost, but, hey—it was meant to mess with Coran and Allura.

Shiro frowned, less than impressed with whatever it was Pidge was plotting. He sighed and said, “Why not?”

Allura gasped. Her eyes lit up with excitement. “Can it tell us if we can defeat Zarkon?”

Pidge shook her head. “Not that kind of future. MASH stands for “Mansion, Apartment, Shack, and House.” She pulled up a screen with the flick of a wrist. Text scrolled down the blue screen. “So, who wants to go first?”

“Me! I’ll do it.”

It was Lance. Perfect. Always wanting to beat Keith at something—even being the first to respond. It was all going according to plan.

“Okay, Lance. So what would you want to be in the future?”

“A fighter pilot. I guess if I had to choose another career path, a cargo pilot—“ (Keith snickered at this.) “Or a stay-at-home dad.”

“Give me four numbers.”

“Five, seven, ten, and twenty-one.”

Pidge tried not to crack a smile or a laugh. “Okay, and list a few names of people you enjoy being around—and one you don’t.”

“Keith—for the one I don’t like,” Lance said. “Allura, of course—“

Allura paled. “No, but what if somehow whatever this is ends up with me and Lance?”

Pidge ignored her and put down the remaining names. (Hunk and Shiro.) “Okay, so now it’s going to randomize the results. Just give it a few moments.” Of course, it wasn’t actually as randomized as she’d stated it was. The final result?

“Lance will live in a shack and work from home—as a stay-at-shack dad—and have ten kids. Oh, and he and Keith will be married!”

Coran wiped a tear in his eye. “You two will be such a handsome young couple! You’ll invite me to the ceremony, right? And I can’t wait to meet your ten children. Do you have names picked out?”

Pidge didn’t think it was possible for the Red Paladin to be redder than his jacket. And Lance was too stunned with the series of questions to tell Coran MASH wasn’t actually accurate.

“Hey, Pidge, why don’t you go?” Hunk asked. He looked a little ashamed of himself—like this really hadn’t been a good plan.

Why not? Hers would be up to pure fate, anyways. “Sure.” She typed in her options for a career (astronaut, robotics specialist, Green Paladin for life) and children (zero, two, four, and six. She hated odd numbers as much as she hated odds of survival. The odds of her finding her parents.) Those were all easy enough. But crushes? She really hadn’t had any in her life. Too focused on other things. But… then there was him. Should she put down Shiro? But if it hit his name… oh, God. It’d be so obvious that she liked him. But she couldn’t think of anyone else to put down. So she had Hunk, Shiro, and the names of two friends from back home. “Okay, here goes.”

“I’ll have a house. Work as a robotic specialist. Have two kids. And I’ll be married to—“ Oh, shit. She felt her face burn. If only she didn’t blush so easily. Shit.

Lance cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted, “Who is it? I can’t hear you.”

“I, uh, need to go to the lab. I forgot something in there.” She ran off down a corridor.

Keith cocked his head. “Isn’t the lab in the opposite direction?”

“Well, it seems I have two weddings to attend now,” Coran said. He read through Pidge’s results. “Lance and Keith; and Shiro and Pidge. How delightful! Two sets of some of my favorite Paladins.”

Shiro clapped a hand on Coran’s shoulder. “I’m going to talk to her.” He then glared menacingly at the rest of the crew. “And you are not going to talk to Pidge about this. That’s an order.”

Lance opened his mouth.

“Teasing is not allowed, either. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, sir,” they all said.

* * *

Quiznak. She shouldn’t have messed around with Lance and Keith like that—but really? She’d already lost her brother and father. (They had to be out there, somewhere.) Karma should at least cut her a break somewhere.

But no, of course not.

“Pidge, I know you’re in there.”

Fuck.

A heavy sigh came from the other side of the door. “Katie.” A much softer, gentler voice. “Don’t think I can’t break down this door.”

She snorted. Yeah, right. If he burnt a hole in the door, Coran would kill him.

“Alright, I warned you.” If it weren’t for the whirring noise of Shiro activating his arm, Pidge would’ve stayed where she was.

The door slid open, revealing Shiro’s broad, muscular figure. “Hey.”

“Hey,” she mumbled, fiddling with wires. Something her father would’ve chewed her out for doing. But her father wasn’t here.

He stepped into Pidge’s quarters. “I see you’ve been working on something,” Shiro said. The perfectly made bed and mounds of dust implied that whatever she’d been working on must be quite the project.

“Yeah.” She kept her eyes on her project—anywhere but Shiro, really. Her project looked like an attempt to revive Rover—or create another Rover. “It’s not going well.”

Shiro attempted to break the ice. “You’d make a pretty good robotic engineer.”

“Thanks, I guess.”

This was not going as smoothly as he’d hoped. “Pidge, I— “

“That’s Katie to you.” Pidge’s response was snappier than she’d intended. But she also meant it—she liked it when Shiro called her by her real name. But only Shiro.

“Katie, it’s alright to have a crush.”

A crush? This was a crush? She bit back a hurt laugh. No, this was more than a crush. Not an obsession, either. She just couldn’t exactly explain her feelings. She was seventeen going on eighteen in a few weeks. She still dressed like a boy—all “dolled up” as her mother used to say. But dolled up in boy’s clothing and her brother’s glasses. “I know that. I’m not stupid.”

“I never said you were. You’re the smartest girl I know.”

She snuck a peek at him. He was so tall. Broad shoulders. A handsome jawline. Rippling muscles.

There was no way he’d go for her—let alone anyone like her.

“Two kids, huh?”

Pidge couldn’t tell if he was actually curious or teasing. “Well, I like kids, but… I wouldn’t want them to have to deal with loss. Hell, I don’t need to lose anyone else.”

Made sense to Shiro—he couldn’t imagine what losing half of her family was like. And her mother had to be worried sick about everyone.

“I guess I’d either have no kids or more than two kids—but never any odd numbers.”

“Girls? Boys? Any preference?”

“So old-fashioned. Sticking to the gender binary,” Pidge teased. She lightly elbowed Shiro—unfortunately in his Galra prosthetic. Her elbow stung. “Ouch.”

“I’m so sorry.” Shiro fumbled around the room. Maybe Pidge kept bandages in here somewhere? Ice?

When was he going to stop apologizing for everything? Not everything that went wrong on board (or off, for that matter) was his fault. “If anyone should be sorry, it’s me.”

Shiro paused after slamming a drawer shut. “Why?”

“I ruined Coran's stupid bonding night thing. And… Well, I… I’m sorry.”

“Don’t you start this apologizing stuff now, Katie. What’s wrong?”

What’s wrong? Did he not just come into her room to tell her that having a crush is alright? That it’s normal?

“I like you. And I can’t help it.”

Shiro blushed a little—he couldn’t exactly help it, either. “I like you, too.”

Pidge frowned. “It’s not like that.” It was more like she wasn’t sure if she wanted to go another day without him. Losing him would be nearly as devastating as losing her family. Since when had he become so important. “I _like_ you.”

“That’s what I said. I _like_ you, too.” He brushed Pidge’s bangs out of her face. Now he could actually see her.

“You’re not upset then?”

“Upset?” Shiro laughed. “I’m less than pleased you fixed Lance’s game, but no, I’m not upset. I’m actually happy that I got a glimpse of our future.” He winked.

Pidge nearly protested—it wasn’t real! The odds of survival this grew slimmer each and every day. But instead of being a killjoy (for once), she just went along with it. "Yeah. Our future."  _Has a pretty nice ring to it._


End file.
